What was your first (Pine Barrens) car?

[tplife]

Well I'm from Wading River, so there's no stores, one streetlight, a stop sign, and only two paved roads - RT542 and Turtle Creek Road. My dad gave me a hand-me-down woodsbuggy: 1961 Mercury Monterey. He didn't have time to teach me to drive so I taught myself - and ran it over a bush that took some doing to back out of. 3-on-the-column and pulled-to-the-left from hitting a deer years back, I did okay for a 10-year-old. The following year I painted it orange, with a brush, and did that look wierd! My buddy and I filled the tires with water to enhance swamp travel along Ridge Road and Iron Pipe Road using a propane tank filled with water and an air hose. The following year I removed the back seat for some reason and while bush whacking down to Turtle Creekwith my other buddy and my 13-year-old girlfriend from Sayreville, the hole under the back floor became a scoop, and turned into a firehose going over some deep puddles:I should not have laughed at seeing her covered with muddy water! I later got a '62 Olds Super 88 with a speedometer that was a ribbon that changed color with speed, but it wasn't until '75 that I was licensed and got my real "first car", a 1956 Mercury Monterey Police Interceptor with a Phil Stropp-designed 312 V8. It had been sagging into a neighbor's place on 542 and they sold it to me for 1$. I cleaned it basically with a toothbrush and found it in great condition on the inside. We worked over the engine, added new tires and my uncle painted it all black with Dupont Emron acrylic. It took me all the way through a few years in Indiana and onto Cali where my common-law-wife girlfriend from Ft. Wayne burned up the engine by running it out of oil. Still miss that Pine Barrens batmobile, armrests in the back and basically a naugahyde couch that could fit 4.

My friends had it a lot better, one with a '51 Willys Jeep with a 283 and the other a '53 Chevy with a flatbed behind the cutoff front cab. But that's another story...

 

[bobpbx]

Good story. I knew a guy who's first was a decrepit yellow ambulance. He used to sleep in it. My first car was a '69 Toyota Corona. I only took it in the woods infrequently. My second was a new '75 Jeep CJ5 and of course that jeep went everywhere, even down your way in Bass River State Forest. After that I had an ugly, trouble-prone '68 pontiac tempest. I only kept that a few months. Even I knew that was a bad ride. Then I got a 70 VW bettle...yellow. I never had a car so good in the woods as that little bug. I very often drove it from Presidential Lakes to Bamber in the woods and never get stuck in the sand. When I did get stuck it was pretty easy to get out with a piece of asphalt roof shingle under the rear tire.

 

[Ben Ruset]

My first car was a 1969 Buick Skylark (in 1996), but my first vehicle to carry me through the Pines was a 1989 Mercury Cougar. This is the story of my first Pine Barrens experience with that car.

 

[MarkBNJ]

My first car? 1964 Ford stepside F-150, in red. The first car I took into the pines was a Chevette. Eventually we busted a ball joint in the woods out past Atco.

 

[Frolickin]

My first car was a 1969 Buick Skylark

My father had a Skylark, but I think it was an earlier model. That went away for a '74 Buick Newport. That thing was a boat!

 

[ZZ3GMC]

Good story. I knew a guy who's first was a decrepit yellow ambulance. He used to sleep in it. My first car was a '69 Toyota Corona. I only took it in the woods infrequently. My second was a new '75 Jeep CJ5 and of course that jeep went everywhere, even down your way in Bass River State Forest. After that I had an ugly, trouble-prone '68 pontiac tempest. I only kept that a few months. Even I knew that was a bad ride. Then I got a 70 VW bettle...yellow. I never had a car so good in the woods as that little bug. I very often drove it from Presidential Lakes to Bamber in the woods and never get stuck in the sand. When I did get stuck it was pretty easy to get out with a piece of asphalt roof shingle under the rear tire.

Where did you get that tempest from? What color was it? My dad gave my uncle a 68 Tempest and he got rid of it in the Pemberton area.

 

[bobpbx]

Where did you get that tempest from? What color was it? My dad gave my uncle a 68 Tempest and he got rid of it in the Pemberton area.

I got it off a guy I knew from work in Browns Mills. It was dark green. It seemed like it may have been in a flood as the carpet always smelled musty and I had electrical problems.

 

[ZZ3GMC]

My dads was a dark green 2 dr with a black vinyl top. Pontiac 350 and a powerglide. I wonder if it was the same car? I actually like the 68 Tempest/GTOs and wish he would have kept it. They changed the grill in 69 and it was ugly in my opinion. My first woods car was a chevette.

 

[Mts83]

91 Isuzu Trooper 4x4

 

[c1nj]

1979 Ford F-150 Ranger with Camper Package

 

[DeepXplor]

I learned how to drive in the pines, so did most of my childhood friends. We had a communal Jeepster. Pakin Pond was a favorite swimming hole and we would hang out in Deep Hollow and drink rot gut beer. No one ever got hurt and I don't know why. Today is different, Although I maintain a Jeep for Pine excusions.

 

[oji]

I got my mom's 71 Ford Pinto. The front end was low to the ground and the oil pan got so beat up that it held a quart less of oil. Drove it around Whitesbog so much I could do it blindfolded. When I traded it in with only 65,000 miles it was so beat up the ad in the newspaper said it had 165,000 miles.

 

[bobpbx]

I learned how to drive in the pines, so did most of my childhood friends. We had a communal Jeepster. Pakin Pond was a favorite swimming hole and we would hang out in Deep Hollow and drink rot gut beer. No one ever got hurt and I don't know why. Today is different, Although I maintain a Jeep for Pine excusions.

Did you live in Presidential Lakes?

 

[Furball1]

First car was a dark blue '63 Chevy Impala convertible, straight 6 and 3 speed on the column. Had a "trailer" made from the rear of a pick-up truck. We built a wooden cage on the trailer so I could strap my powder blue 15 foot '71 Lenape Chief canoe onto it. The canoes maiden voyage was at Iona Lake. Next was a 70 Corolla Sprint 4-speed on the floor, 1.4 L, which looked very funny with the canoe on top---the canoe was much longer! BUT, without a doubt, my favorite car of ALL TIME and the most magnificant pinebarrens cruiser was my brand new 1974 Toyota Landcruiser FJ-40, beige. My girlfriend at the time [now my wife ] made custom curtains for the rear windows, a fabric with scenes of deer running through the forest. Taking the shell off was a hoot. I'd run heavy rope through the door jambs and around the rear flip-up window, toss the rope over my grandpa's huge black walnut tree, and with a pulley would lift it up high enough to pull the "bruiser" forward, then tie the top off until I came back! The neighbors must of thought I was a nut-case. Taking the roof and the doors off made the bruiser feel like a sportscar, I would swear it had more get-up-and-go! Ha! And then running it throught he PB's was UNBELIEVABLE. You felt truly one with nature. Who would think a machine could do such a thing? I also mounted a rodholder to the front for surf-rods, when my buddy Tom and I would hit the beach at Island Beach state Park. I had a striped bass sticker on it, a largemouth bass sticker, and stickers from National Wildlife, National Audubon Society, Sierra Club, etc., etc., a real eco-fishing-birding guy with an afro. My wardrobe was: t-shirt/cutoff jeans in the summer, flannel shirt and jeans in the winter. Lord knows I miss the bruiser. I still go on e-bay dreaming of buying a restored LC. What a great opportunity to share some of my life with y'all---thanks, it was really nice. Blessings to all and have a great day---David.

 

[bobpbx]

my favorite car of ALL TIME and the most magnificant pinebarrens cruiser was my brand new 1974 Toyota Landcruiser FJ-40, beige.

They really were nice. I kind of wish I had gone for that over the jeep, but it didn't even occur to me because I had too much testosterone back then. My jeep had a 304 engine and I put on headers, high rise intake, and a 4 barrel holly carb. Second gear felt like 2 G's.

 

[Teegate]

They really were nice. I kind of wish I had gone for that over the jeep, but it didn't even occur to me because I had too much testosterone back then. My jeep had a 304 engine and I put on headers, high rise intake, and a 4 barrel holly carb. Second gear felt like 2 G's.

What happened to that Jeep Bob?


Guy

 

[Boyd]

Well my "pine barrens car" has always just been "my car". So I guess the first one I took into the pines was a 67 Mustang, around 1972.

 

[james ungehajer]

My first Pine Barrens car was a 1973 454 Corvette.

Jim

 

[DeepXplor]

Did you live in Presidential Lakes?

I was raised in Merchantville. On days off from school, some official some not, we would go to Lebanon and play around. Our exploration wasn't formal but little by little we learned to appreciate the Pines. It was the perfect venue to learn how to drive a car without your parents or adult supervision. I sometimes find myself amazed that we didn't get hurt.

 

[Teegate]

I was raised in Merchantville. On days off from school, some official some not, we would go to Lebanon and play around. Our exploration wasn't formal but little by little we learned to appreciate the Pines. It was the perfect venue to learn how to drive a car without your parents or adult supervision. I sometimes find myself amazed that we didn't get hurt.

I spoke with Ed today and he told me your age. You are the same age as a few people I know who grew up in Merchantville. I can't remember the name of the area they lived in but I will ask him tomorrow. He has told me but my memory is poor. I know it was near the Ford dealership.

Guy